


A Sergeant's adventures in Detroit

by RhoneRiver



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: How Do I Tag, Not Beta Read, Platonic Relationships, Tags May Change, Title may change if I find a better one, but i try, i dont know what i'm doing, mostly follows the games plot, or at least I try, probably uptaded really slow, with little tweaks here and there
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-07-20 20:20:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16144784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhoneRiver/pseuds/RhoneRiver
Summary: You work as a Sergeant at the DPD, all of you are exhausted and overworked. One day CyberLife decides to send a certain prototype Detective on a field run in your department. And Fowler had the glorious idea of assigning it to Hank, who notoriously doesn’t like androids. Who is responsible that the two of them don’t kill each other, or rather that Hank doesn’t try and get rid of his new partner? That’s right. You.This mostly follows the game’s core plot, with a few minor tweaks here and there of course. I try to keep the readers relationships as platonic as possible but I’m really bad at writing so who knows where this’ll go? I certainly don’t.It’s my first time writing something like this and English isn’t my native language so I appreciate any and all constructive criticism.





	1. A long day at work

**August 15th, 2038 19:20**   
**Detroit City Police Department**

“Alright ma’am, I need you to calm down a little, so you can tell me exactly what happened.” You pushed a box of tissues towards the crying woman. “Would you like anything to drink? Coffee? Tea?” The woman, Tatjana Davis, meekly replied ‘tea’ between sobs that shook her entire body. You got up from your chair, stretching your aching legs a little before addressing the child in her lap. “And what can I get for you? Let’s see, some syrup and a doughnut… how’s that sound.” The child gave no reply, the twinkle in his eyes when you mentioned the doughnut was all you needed. “I’ll be right back.” You gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze as you passed her to get to the break room.

  
You placed a paper cup in the coffee machine and pressed ‘hot water’ before turning to a cabinet and wrenching it open. You’d really need to oil it sometime, it took way too much effort to open. Moving around some cups and for _some_ _reason_ a bottle of vodka, you finally found what you were looking for at the very back. A Bottle of raspberry syrup that was left from ‘bring your kid to work’ day. Returning to the coffee machine you snatched a tea bag of chamomile, throwing it into the steaming liquid. You grabbed another paper cup pouring in just enough syrup to cover the bottom and filling the rest with water. Lastly you got yourself a cup of coffee, watching the clock on the coffee machine as it poured out your life blood (seriously, by now you had to be at least 75% coffee). 19:36 two more hours, just _two_ _more_ and you could finally get some well needed sleep.

  
Gathering all the cups, a napkin and doughnut you returned to your desk. Placing the tea, Syrup and treat in front of the woman and her child.  
“So,” you took a sip of your coffee “what happened?” Positioning your fingers over the keys to start writing what she said. But she remained silent.

  
“I’m going to ask you some questions, you only have to answer yes or no.” Maybe that way it was easier for her to give you the information you needed. Instead of having to recount the things that happened to her, she could simply deny or confirm them.  
“Has your husband ever physically abused you? Hitting, slapping or other that could cause injury?” You made a mental note to not use the term husband, Tatjana had flinched as you said it.

  
A nod. You typed ‘victim was physically abused’ into the file.  
“Has he denied you medical care?”  
Another nod, poor woman. You could see the bruises littering her arms and neck from where you were seated. Thankfully her little boy seemed to be unharmed from what you could see.  
“Has he withheld your money from you?”  
“Occasionally”

  
A sudden thought sprung to your mind and you voiced it.  
“Does Jacob take drugs?” With that Red Ice epidemic Detroit was experiencing you wouldn’t be surprised if he did.

  
“He...-he does take red ice.”

  
You nodded. “Does he by any chance sell it?”

  
“I-I don’t know… There were..-were people coming over frequently I don’t know what they did. We were locked in- locked in Oliver’s room while they were there…” She stumbled over her words.

  
You gave a thoughtful hum and added ‘possession and possible redistribution of Red Ice’ to his charge of domestic abuse.  
“Did- “Your sentence was cut short as the phone on your desk began ringing. “Excuse me for a minute.” You picked up the receiver and held it to your ear before speaking. “Ser- “

  
“Yeah, yeah I _know_ who’s speaking. Get your butt over here! We’re waiting outside.” You recognised Ryan’s voice. He was on the SWAT sniper team, just like you and if they were outside already you had to hurry.

  
“Give me three minutes.” You took a look around. There were two people left in the office, not counting yourself. Gavin and Chris, while Gavin was an experienced and certainly capable Detective (if he wanted to) you felt that Chris was the better choice here. Though he would certainly try, you believed that Gavin wouldn’t be able to make Tatjana feel at ease. Chris on the other hand was more soft spoken and fresh from the academy, he could use some experience.

  
“Hey Chris” you called through the office “I got called in. Could you take over here?”  
“Ah-uh sure.” He shoved some files out of the way and they would have fallen off his desk and scattered on the ground if he hadn’t caught them in the last second. “Sorry ‘bout that. Take a seat.” He motioned for the empty chair in front of his desk. You sent the started document to Chris’ terminal where it appeared with a ‘pling’, like an email

  
“Chris is a very Capable officer, no worries you are in good hands.” You piped up from behind your desk, unlocking a compartment in it and pulling out a duffle and a sleek black case that held your rifle. You started for the exit but stopped at his desk scribbling down a phone number on a piece of paper. “It’s a local women’s shelter number, if you have nowhere else to go… They also have a 24/7 help line.”  
This time you reached the exit and hopped in the back of the already waiting vehicle. Inside were five other people, your teammates: Ryan who had called you, William the gramps of the team, Ethan the newbie, Xavier the team’s optimist and Elias the pessimist. Overall a fun combination. The engine roared to life, and you started off toward your destination. Wherever that was.

  
“4 minutes and 28 seconds, you’re getting slower.” Ryan teased, a little ‘peep’ sound coming from a timer he had been running.  
You started to unbutton your uniform. “Well excuuuse me, mister ‘I’m-never-late-to-anything’ for having actual shit to do!” You had changed before these men so many times it didn’t even bother you anymore, and neither did the bumpy roads. They were also not bothered by you anymore, continuing to talk like you didn’t just stand there in your underwear. Over time they had become like brothers to you, albeit very annoying brothers.

  
“What even are we dealing with?” You asked, having finished dressing yourself and focusing on putting your sniper rifle together, with fast fluid motions.

  
“Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that you have another job.” Ryan turned to you while the others kept idly conversing, something about the right way to cook spaghetti. “Some android took a child hostage at 1554 Park Avenue.” He gave a low whistle through his teeth. “Must be some pretty wealthy people if they can afford to live there, in a penthouse none the less.”

  
“And what are we supposed to do?” You pulled the helmet over your head and opened the visor. “Go in there and shoot it from the apartment or what?”

  
“Nah, we’re posted on the roofs ´round it. ‘Further instructions will follow’” Ryan mimicked Allen’s voice, and he actually did a pretty decent job at it.

***

The truck came to a stop and the back opened allowing you all to leave. You were greeted not only by flashing blue red lights and sirens but also and onslaught of curious spectators, only held back by the barricades that have been put up.

  
“Alright then” came William’s voice and you perked up. “Ryan and Elias over there.” Ryan groaned, they had gotten the building farthest away. “Xavier in the chopper and I’ll be over here” he was facing the balcony head on. “Ethan you’re with her, over there. In position!”

  
You ran off Ethan trailing behind you. The building you had got was pretty close, you were going to be to a little off your targets right side. The doors of the building slid open as soon as you came up to them and the elevator across from them opened, very inviting. However, you had no time to marvel at the beautiful entrance hall as when you reached the elevator you selected the 75th floor and the doors closed almost soundlessly.

  
“One in position.” It came from your helmet.

  
“Shit, already…” Ethan was impatiently fidgeting next to you.

  
“Well yeah, William took the closest one. He _is_ getting old after all.” You chuckled.

  
“Five in position.” You could barely hear Xavier’s voice over the noise of the helicopter.

  
The elevator opened. The only thing separating you and Ethan from your vantagepoint now, was a flight of stairs and a door. Both of which proved to be of little hindrance, as only a minute after you got off the elevator you laid on the ground. You pressed the right side of your helmet, enabling your intercom. “Three and Six in position… Hurry up Ryan” You added teasingly at the end. “How many casualties?” You asked as you spotted a dead body floating in the pool through your scope.

  
“One civilian, two officers and one unconfirmed.” The answer did not come from your teammates but rather from mission command, who you presumed to be inside the apartment.

  
First responders? Hadn’t you assigned Anthony and Mathias to this district? Were they dead because of- you cut that line of thought off right there. If you continued with it, you wouldn’t be able to take a clear shot anymore. You took a few deep breaths to calm yourself, those were thoughts you confined to your own four walls. These were your alone thoughts. All that mattered now was the little girl.

  
“Hey, you okay there?” It came from your right side. Ethan, you had totally forgotten that he was here with you.

  
“Yea I’m fine.” You shifted your aim back on the android at the edge of the balcony. All that mattered.

  
You heard a crackling in your helmet as Ryan’s voice filled your ears. He sounded winded. “Two and Four finally in position.”

  
“About time, Ryan.” You mocked, not having to press anything as all your helmets were connected to one another. You liked that it was that way, you could have conversations with your unit without all other teams listening in.

  
“Oh- _well_ fuck you too!” After that your line went silent, all of you concentrating. Your eyes flickered to the top left corner of your visor. ‘20:28’ and under that ‘do not shoot’ What were they waiting for? With every minute you waited the girl’s chance of survival dropped.

  
“Negotiator on site. Repeat, negotiator on site.” So that was what you were waiting for. A Negotiator. Let’s hope whoever it was knew how to do their job, because in your eyes that girl was as good as dead. The way the android held her you couldn’t take a shot without risking the bullet going through it and lodging itself in the child’s body. Maybe Ryan and William had better luck with their positions. Your and Ethan’s hands however, were tied right now.

  
For a few painfully long minutes nothing happened, besides the android firing a few shots at random it seemed. Its mouth was moving as well, but you were too far away to hear what it had to say.

  
And then Finally. “All units, hold positions. The negotiator’s going in.” But for another minute or so, nothing happened. You let your scope wander over the terrace towards the rest of SWAT, curious to see who that so called ‘negotiator’ was. There were five others still aiming at the android, so you thought you could let your gaze wander a bit. Besides, as it was now Ethan and you couldn’t shoot anyway.

  
The curtains moved and out came… _An android_? An android who promptly got shot in the arm. Off to a _great_ start.

  
“Well… Looks like she’s done for.”

  
“Come on Elias, maybe we’ll be pleasantly surprised, and the situation resolves itself. Positive thoughts!”  
Xavier and Elias started bickering and you tuned them out, you had gotten surprisingly good at ignoring people. Both because of those two and your work at the precinct. If there was something to bitch about, you’d be the first to hear.

  
You not only received complaints from officers under you but also from Fowler, though you liked to think that that was just his stress talking. As the complaints you received from him were things entirely beyond your control. At those times you whished you could ask for help and, according to rank-hierarchy, that would be a lieutenant or another sergeant. But you were the only sergeant and you knew Hank had enough on his own personal plate, so you didn’t want to go bother him. (When he actually was in the precinct, that is)

  
“Will you two shut up! Can’t focus on a damn thing with your bickering.” William finally got them to shut up and your line, once again, fell into silence.  
Your field of view fell on glowing lettering on the ‘negotiators’ jacket. ‘RK800’ You had never seen that model number before, then again you had never seen an _android negotiator_ before. You heard the whipping of a helicopter’s rotor blades, but you were too absorbed in your own thoughts to care. It could very well be that they had been running around for several years and you just hadn’t come across one yet. Was the first time you saw an android taking an active role in your line of work too. Sure, you had the PC200 and PM700 back at the station, but they performed minor tasks, nothing like this. You wouldn’t even dream of assigning them to something like this.

  
You continued to follow the android as it maneuvered its way over the balcony and watched it crouch down next to an officer you hadn’t seen yet. As the officer, was it Mathias? Was turned on his back by the ‘negotiator’ you heard another gunshot go off, even saw the sparks as it ricocheted off the ground. There was a brief moment of no movement before the android took of its tie, you assumed it was applying a tourniquet to the officer before standing back up.

  
Asimov’s first law of robotics in action.

  
Deciding you had seen enough you returned your aim to your original target, zooming in a little more. Observing its mouth, maybe you could try to read its lips. You got the words ‘lie, wrong’ and ‘human’. Could you make sense out of those words? _No_ , the answer was no. The next words you deciphered were ‘noise’ and ‘helicopter’. You zoomed out a little, just in time to see ‘the negotiator’ waving the helicopter away. Xavier’s voice came over the intercom again.

  
“The situation is under control.”

  
“Under control? Are you _kidding_ me Xav? This situation is _under control_ for you?!” The disbelief was clearly audible in Elias’ voice.

  
“Let’s just see where this goes from here, okay guys?” This was the first time Ryan had spoken up in quite some time. You suspected that just like you he had been ignoring the bickering up to now. If Ryan got serious it usually meant that things were about to end. How it was going to end, was entirely in that RK unit’s hands.

  
You zoomed back in, able to make out the word ‘die’. Having no context to it you just had to hope that die wasn’t meant in ‘now this girl’s gonna die’.

  
Mission command come back on the line with the order you had been waiting for nearly one hour. “Fire as soon as hostage is released!” This is what you’ve been waiting for.

  
You put your inedxfinger on the trigger, slowly increasing pressure. This is what you’ve been laying on the ground for. You stopped increasing pressure as you felt resistance. Just a bit longer, just a tiny bit more force and your bullet would find its target.

  
The girl was released, and she stumbled away from the ledge.  
You pulled the trigger.

  
The shot you’ve so carefully aligned over all this time. It found its target. Entering the android just a little under where a human’s rib cage would have been. The bullet forced its way through the android’s body and out the other side. Taking a large chunk of its side with it.  
You watched as its body was thrown from one side to another, an almost smug look on your face. You very rarely missed your target. This one, was just another tick in your book. Another point for _you_. It sank to its knees and you pulled away, moving to stand up.

  
“Target down! Secure premises.” Those orders did not concern you any longer. Your unit had done its job and was now free to go.  
You gave Ethan a pat on the shoulder. “Nice shot buddy.”

  
He took off his helmet and you followed suit. “Thanks, yours was great too.”

  
Flashing him a smile, you grabbed your rifle and started for the door, Ethan walking next to you. What a day. You could hear your bed calling you, beckoning you.

  
William was already in the truck as Ethan and you piled in. You saw a flashing light come from your duffel where you had shoved your phone into. Fishing it out and turning the display to face you.

  
**21:53**  
 **Sunday 15th August**

  
**Jimmy** 2 Missed Calls  
**Jimmy:** Yo got a Lt. here whos over alcohol limit  
**Jimmy:** you bringing him home or what

  
You gave a frustrated sigh and groaned. “Fuck me.”

  
“I gladly will.”

  
“Shut the fuck up Ryan.” You bit back. “Just drop me off at Jimmy’s.” Can this day end already? You opened an app on your phone putting in the address of Jimmy’s bar, at least now your car would be waiting there for you. Wonders of technology. Digging your uniform from the duffel you began to take off your clothes once again.

  
“Whoa! Hey, why you changing clothes again.”

  
“What? You thought I’d step foot in a bar dressed like this.”

  
“I kind of wanna know what would happen.”

  
“No one asked you, Ryan.” Your nerves were wearing thin as you buttoned your uniform for the third time today. Ghosting your fingertips over the barrel of your rifle to check if it was still hot. It wasn’t. So, you began to take it apart again, stowing the pieces in the indents of the black foam. It was soft to the touch and you were tempted to lay your head down on it. Yet you resisted the urge.

***

  
**22:29**  
 **Jimmy’s bar**

  
“That’s my stop. G’night boys.” You clambered out the truck, balancing both the duffel and your rifle-case in one arm.  
A chorus of good nights sounded from inside and William added a ‘get home safe’ before they drove off and left you to your own devices.  
The door to your car opened at one touch and you tossed your things inside, putting Hank’s address in the GPS. Watching your car drive off, you strided towards the door and janked it open.

  
A few heads turned but most of them already knew you and soon returned to nursing their drinks. It, sadly, wasn’t a rarity to see you pop by to pick up the lieutenant. Sometimes you whished he would vape, instead of drinking himself senseless, _like his generation was supposed t_ o. Would make handling him easier, but as he put it ‘it reminded him too much of these Red Ice crackheads’. He simply couldn’t bring himself to touch the damn things.

  
“Hank.” He refused to look at you, continuing to nurse his whiskey. That drink would one day be the death of him, and there was nothing you could do to prevent it.

  
Jimmy slid Hank’s car keys over the counter and you snatched them before the older man had a chance to protest.  
“Where’d you park?”

  
Silence. Looks like this time he’s his quiet drunk persona. You preferred this to the angry one. To be honest that one scared you, angry-drunk-Hank was unpredictable and would not shy away from punching stuff _or_ people.

  
“ _Hank_ ,” Your tone was scolding, like a mother apprehending her child. Despite him being your superior in both rank and age. It seemed the roles had reversed. “You and I both have work tomorrow, and I’d really fucking appreciate it if I could go home already.”

  
He gave a long sigh downing his drink in one gulp, rummaging in his pocket he fished out a 20$ bill and shoved it in Jimmy’s general direction. With somewhat wobbly steps he reached the door, turning to see if you were following. You were.

  
His car was parked close to the bar and as you powered on the engine you turned down the volume of his Heavy Metal tunes. You did not want to have a tinnitus already. You shifted the car in reverse backing out of his parking spot. Thankfully all police vehicles were still manual instead of autonomous. If you didn’t know how to drive a stick this would have been a lot more difficult.  
The atmosphere in the car was tense, you were sure you could cut it with a knife if you wanted to.

  
***

  
You pulled up in his driveway driving around your own car and killing the engine.  
“Thanks for driving me home. You can leave now.” You heard the underlaying order but choose to ignore it.

  
“The very least you can do is let me use the bathroom.” You considered adding ‘you ungrateful doorknob’ but in his current state of mind he would probably misunderstand it.

  
“Make yourself at home sergeant.” He spat back and slammed the car door, lumbering towards his front door.  
You followed him, locking the car. Once inside you dumped the car keys on his kitchen table, watching as he stumbled his way to his room. Deciding to not bring him a glass of water and painkillers as a sort of petty revenge, you instead grabbed a light blue post-it and a pen. You wrote down ‘keep smiling’ in neat cursive letters and brought it with you to the bathroom, sticking it to his mirror. The light blue stood out among the other yellow sticky notes and you wondered how long it would take him to notice and throw it away. Turning on your heel and flipping the light switch on your way out, you found Sumo standing in front of the door. You knelt and gave him a thorough petting, scratching his favourite spot just behind his right ear.

  
“You need to take care of your owner Sumo.” The dog gave a loud bark.  
“I _heard_ that!” Hank yelled from his bedroom.

  
Giving Sumo a final pat on the head you got up and started for the door. “You were supposed to hear that Hank. See you at work tomorrow.” You heard a muffled ‘whatever’ before you closed his front door, locking it with the spare key he kept under his doormat. Stepping inside your car you leaned over the front seats and pressed the ‘Home’ icon with a bit more force than was necessary. You laid down on the backseat, taking up the entire space and closing your eyes.

***

  
You dragged yourself through the lobby of your apartment complex, carrying only your rifle- case because you weren’t allowed to leave it in the car.

  
“Welcome home. Long day at work?”

  
“Hey Clo, yeah you could say that.” You greeted the receptionist android stifling a yawn and calling the elevator to the ground level via a little card you had. You weren’t sure it had ever been officially given a name as it’s nametag only read ‘reception’, so you had decided to call it nicknames of Chloe. In tribute of the very first android that passed the Turing test, you remembered watching a live airing of it on TV with your parents and brother. You also remembered trying to tell human and machine apart yourself and epically failing to do so. After it was revealed you pretended to have known the entire time, prompting a fight between you and your older brother Jaydon. (Or as you liked to call him Jay _duh_ )

  
You rested your head on the elevator doors, Still waiting for it to reach the ground floor. “I’m placing an order for spare parts for some of the station’s androids tomorrow, you need anything?” The elevator opened with a little ‘ding’ sound and you got on, keeping the door open with your hand. Waiting for a reply.

  
“I am in no need of maintenance, thank you for the offer.” You removed your hand from the doors and they started to close. “Have a pleasant night’s rest.”

  
The elevator seemed to crawl up to the 30th floor, but eventually you made it. There was only one other apartment on your floor. Both spanned over two stories, a loft taking up half the space. You quite liked having a loft, it gave you high walls making the rooms seem bigger than they really were. The window front also helped in creating this illusion, you could also dim them to save you from prying eyes or city lights.  
You unlocked your front door with the same card that you had called the elevator with. Eyes scanning the lower level in search of your fluffy companion Katti. From the open kitchen and adjacent living room to the closed guest bedroom and bathroom doors, no Ragdoll. Moving your gaze to the stairs that lead to the loft where the master bath and bedroom were, as well as a little bureau with a laptop that had access to your police terminal. There she was sprawled over the steps ready to trip you, but you had foiled her plan. She was sleeping, and you didn’t want to disturb her, so you skipped the step she was on.

  
Eager to finally go to bed you unbuttoned your uniform for the fourth time and carelessly threw it in a corner. You had to wash it anyway and you still had a spare one at the station, there were also two others with long sleeves. Briefly considering getting a shower, you quickly dismissed the idea. You’d grab one tomorrow morning. You tugged on an oversized shirt and went to the glass that framed the ledge of the loft and placed your fingers on it. Where your touch had ghosted over the glass the pixels turned to various shades of blue and white. Creating a picture of a calm ocean, you swiped your hand to the right and the glass picked up your movement. The scenery started to change to desert dunes; another swipe, Wheat fields; swipe, a snowy mountain; swipe, a lake; swipe, A forest.

  
Feeling satisfied with the picture you left it be and turned to your alarm-clock, 23:54 it read. Sighting you put your alarm to 5 o’clock sharp instead of 5:30, Half an hour should be enough for a shower. You then proceeded to throw yourself on your queen-sized bed. Relishing in the soft feel of your duvet and pillow covers. Oh, how you had _longed_ for them. Burying your head further into the pillow you felt yourself drift off into a dreamless sleep.


	2. Chapter Two

**August 16 th, 2038 5:00**

**Temple Street Apartments**

An annoying beeping sound pulled you from your sleep and you were very tempted to punch whatever was making the sound. Then your tired mind caught on and you instead turned off your alarm. Next you switched off your windows picture display and they returned to being see-through.

 

Your gaze fell on your white corner couch, there between the light blue and grey pillows you saw a ball of fur. Perfect, Katti was still sleeping, maybe you’d finally be able to shower alone. Creeping towards the bathroom you slowly slid the oak door open, cringing as it made a sound when you closed it. Hopefully she hadn’t heard it, or you would shower with company.

 

You stripped and stepped under the rainfall showerhead, turning the water to ice cold. Hoping this would clear your jumbled mind. Grabbing your shampoo, you started to work it into your hair, creating a lot of foam and rinsing it out. Next was your bodywash, rinsing it off you began to hear scratching on the sliding door. You began to speed up your scrubbing and rinsing, the smell of vanilla enveloping you. As Katti finally got the door to slide open you turned the water off. A triumphant smile playing on your face.

 

“Too late Katti. I’m already done.” You laughed, wrapping yourself in a soft towel. She went over to the shower and started to play in a puddle that was still left on the ground. As you had one of those showers that was separated from the rest of the bathroom with only two glass panels. It was not a surprise that some water was left on the dark stone ground of it. You should have known, she loved to play in water. Or get under the shower with you to drip water all over the apartment afterwards. Only this time you showered fast enough to prevent this.

But if she caught you bathing- oh boy then the chase is on. It was surprisingly hard to catch a drenched soapy cat. Especially if it was hellbent on not getting caught before it at least ran across a bed, a couch and half the lower floor.

 

You collected your dirty clothes that you had discarded in a corner and dumped them in the laundry basket. Was laundry day this Monday or next one? Probably next one, judging by the amount of clothes in the basket. Bah, Mondays who invented them and why?

 You grabbed a pair of underwear, not caring if bra and panties matched. ‘No one will see them so why bother’ you thought to yourself, pulling a navy tank top over your head. Next you were searching for a pair of trousers, deciding to wear a pair of black skinny jeans.  Those would look acceptable with your uniform. Because even though you had like four shirts, they had only thought to give you one pair of trousers. It was time that you brought them to the dry-cleaning again. It had been a month since they had last been professionally cleaned. You weren’t particularly keen on knowing what kind of nasty stuff had accumulated on them and survived your washing machine.

 

Grabbing your blow-dryer, you stood in front the mirror, inspecting your face while you dried your hair. You had prominent dark circles under your eyes and they were a tad bit puffy, from lack of sleep. You briefly considered covering them up but then decided to wear them like a trophy. If you were going to look like a train wreck you might as well do it right.  Quickly pulling your hair in a ponytail you grabbed your uniform from yesterday. Then left downstairs, towards the kitchen. Towards coffee.

 

If coffee would be considered a drug, then you would probably be the biggest junky in the entirety of Michigan.

On your kitchen isle laid a white electric violin and it seemed to judge your for not playing it yesterday. Usually your routine consisted of coming home, cuddling with Katti and connecting your violin to your headphones to play a few pieces without waking up your neighbours. That was one advantage of electric instruments, they could be played almost silently to outsiders when you heard the full sound of your handiwork through your headphones. Yet you had kept the old wooden violin from your childhood, when you first began to play. It was upstairs neatly tucked away in your closet in its case and probably horribly out of tune from not using it.

 

When you had first begun to play the violin, it sounded akin to someone torturing a cat. With time you slowly got better and now you were actually not that bad at it. In College you even got an invitation to join the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, which you had to decline. You had already chosen your career path and simply didn’t have enough time to do it on the side. It made you a bit sad to know that your violin was deteriorating in your closet, from what you could gather there weren’t that many ‘real’ instruments anymore. They gradually got replaced by their electronic counterparts or computer-generated sounds. Though you had seen a new shop at the mall called ‘Retro Sound’. Maybe you would bring it to them, see if they could retune it and polish it up a bit. Wouldn’t hurt to try.

 

A beeping sound from your coffee machine interrupted your thoughts, your coffee was ready.

You gulped down your first cup for the day and an apple as breakfast. Then filled up Katti’s food-dispenser and grabbed a grey cardigan, your uniform and rifle. You were almost out the door when you remembered the USB-stick and went back to grab it. You were very curious to see if the little program you wrote would work. It would make your vacation more enjoyable if it did.

 

You passed the reception and answered Clo’s ‘have a nice day at work’ with a much less enthusiastic ‘thanks’ before you were out the doors and walked towards your car.

 

You were planning to go meet up with your brother, his wife Rebecka and your little niece Avabelle in Canada. They live in Belleville, the city where Rebecka grew up. It was right between Toronto, Ottawa and Montréal. All three cities could be reached in about 5 hours of driving. You were going to drag them sightseeing with you, even if Rebecka had probably seen all of it already. But did you care? No.

 

It has been almost an entire year since you last saw your brother, you had a lot of catching up to do. You’d certainly have enough time to do so, as you had planned to stay with them from September 1st to November 2nd. An entire month should be enough.

 

You were grateful that Fowler even allowed you to stay away so long. Even if it was under the condition that after two weeks you’d start doing deskwork again. Assigning cars and equipment, checking reports and managing patrols. All your other duties were going to be given to someone else temporarily. You pitied the poor bloke that would get stuck with your work. Except if it was Reed, then you’d be laughing. He always seemed to be very eager to move up the ladder. When the both of you just entered the academy, he was already talking about how he would soar through the ranks like ‘a fucking eagle’ to put it in his words.

 

Oh boy your first day at the academy, that was something you’d never forget for sure. You had been told to come in business casual clothing, so that was what you wore. You remembered sitting down at a table next to Gavin with your notebook and pen, idly conversing. Then the instructor entered the room and asked you all to follow him. He led your little group to something that loosely resembled a school gym. You were the last to enter and the doors shut and locked behind you. “Alright mopes! Let’s see what y’all made out of!” They had you line up in alphabetical order, you didn’t know anyone’s names, you couldn’t even remember your _own_ name. it was complete and utter chaos.

Two hours later you were sitting in your car, dress clothes sticking to you and thinking. ‘What the fuck have I gotten myself into!?’

 

You sat down in one of the front seats, smiling at the memory, and clicked the address you had saved as ‘work’. Adding the address of a dry-cleaning place as a little detour.

 

You leaned on the window watching the familiar scenery pass by as your car merged onto the street.

 

***

**6:02**

**Detroit City Police Department**

 

 

You were often the first one in the office, besides nightshift. They usually started packing up when you came through the doors, but not today. As you entered the bullpen, duffle and rifle-case in hand, you were surprised to see that nightshift was gone already and Fowler was at his desk. That was unusual. Normally he would arrive 10 to 15 minutes later than you. Dumping your things at your desk you rummaged through your desk’s drawers looking for that pesky little key that liked to get lost, apparently. You found it hidden in the paperclips and unlocked the compartment where you stowed your stuff. Feeling a pair of eyes on you, you froze up for a second before locking it and hiding the key back with all the paperclips.

 

“Sergeant, just a word.” He left the door to the captains-office open, you thought of it more as a glass cage than an office. As you stepped up the stairs you wondered what the hell you had done, or not done, for him to call you in.

 

Was it about your holiday request? Had he changed his mind? You knew that you were understaffed at the moment, but you would still be doing your deskwork. Surely, he could work with one less patrol officer. And its not like you had a partner that would be unable to work if you weren’t there.

 In fact, you worked solo for most of your job. Spell and factchecking reports, you did that by yourself. Patrolling the streets, apart from technical equipment you were alone. The only times where you worked in a team was when you were either supervising a crime scene, a recruit or when you were called because the officers on site needed help.

 

You moved to sit down in one of the chairs but were surprised that he beckoned you behind the desk. You followed his request and instead of sitting you stood behind him, watching his computer screen as he gestured to it. It showed an email with the CyberLife logo in the top right corner.

 

“CyberLife wants us to investigate some android cases that’ve been bothering them. To do so they would send us a special model, after it has successfully passed some last tests.” You assumed that he summarised the email for you. “What do you think?”

 

You tapped your finger on your lip. “I don’t know. Is it supposed to work on its own?”

 

“No” You watched as he forwarded the email to you. “it is designed to work in a team. I was thinking of Hank- “You cut him off, disbelief easily recognizable in your voice.

 

“Hank! What makes you think that partnering _Hank_ , of all people, with an _android_ would be a good idea!” God you hoped Fowler was joking. “You know just as well as me that he hates them with a seething passion. Anyone would be a better fit than Hank.”

 

Fowler held up his hands and your rambling ceased.

“I know, I know.” A heavy sight pushed past his lip. “But I hope that working these cases, with the android, will bring back the _old_ Hank. I don’t have to tell you how he was before, and maybe… maybe the android will succeed where we have failed.”

 

 You knew what he was hinting at, but you honestly doubted that would work. “I don’t know what else to do, none of us could get him out of that bottomless pit he’s fallen into. The precinct _needs_ a functioning lieutenant. I _can’t_ keep pushing his work down on you. _Can’t_ keep adding pages to his disciplinary folder _can’t_ _keep_ seeing that _shell_ of what used to be a brilliant officer coming to work wasted, with barely a clue what he’s doing, _indifferent_ to the world around him. _You_ can’t keep picking him up from all the _damn_ _bars_ he’d rather _stay_ at than do his work! You can’t keep _babysitting_ him! He’s a grown ass-man for fucks sake!” His voice had become a crescendo of frustration, stopped by a full tact pause. He dragged his hands down his face and whispered. “I _can’t_.” It reminded you of a music piece you had played where a fortississimo was followed by a pianississimo. A stark contrast.

 

You yourself were stunned into silence, you had known that Fowler was… _displeased_ with Hank. But never had it occurred to you that it would eat away on him like that, and suddenly you felt very guilty.

 

“You’ll be partnered with them. I want you to keep a close eye on Hank. And you are to report to me, should things not improve. I’ve sent you CyberLife’s email.” He didn’t say anything else after that and you took it as your cue to leave.

 

You stopped, your hand on the door handle. “I hope this’ll work.” And out of the office you were, silently closing the door behind you.

 

Returning to your desk you started up your terminal. Your little talk with Fowler had cost you precious time. You needed to assign equipment to the officers on patrol duty, prepare a briefing for the crimes that happened over night and check the briefing board. All of that had to be done before the first shift arrived at 7. You had 35 minutes left. You logged on your terminal and clicked trough the crimes of last night, jotting down a few notes. When you caught sight of one specific case. The hostage from yesterday. You skimmed over it taking some notes and adding to your memories of last night. One sentence stuck out to you like a sore thumb.

 

Casualties: John Phillips, Officer Anthony Deckart, Officer Kayden Roose. Killed by hostile malfunctioning android.

 

You bit your tongue, so Anthony really had been killed. He was so close to retirement. Just one more year and he could’ve spent more time with his family, just like he’d always told you.

 

At least Mathias was still alive, not that it helped your conscience much. You couldn’t have known when you assigned them to patrol. You couldn’t have known.

 

Maybe if you said it enough you would believe yourself.

 

 

10 minutes left, you decided to do the equipment assigning now and the briefing board later.

 

Okay let’s see what you can work with today. Two motorcycle-cops, six patrol officers and four community officers. Perfect, you had two motorcycles, three cars and two policing-android units. You put the motorcycles in the central area, some simple traffic controls. The cars you put on the outskirts of your precinct area overlapping with the 7th and 3rd. The community officers and police androids you put on a route that, over the course of one day, wound its way around all parks, malls and squares in your area.

 

3 minutes left. The first of your officers started trickling into the briefing room. You pulled up the board on your terminal and quickly scanned over the most recent additions, these tended to be the most important ones.

At 7 o’clock sharp you ran from your desk to the briefing room and stared it.

 

***

Instead of going straight back to your desk you went to the Break-room to get yourself the second coffee of an undefined number today. Oh right, you still hadn’t changed into your uniform. You took your coffee cup with you to the locker room. Sipping on it.

 

Greeted with nothing but rows of lockers and a bench in the middle of it. Your locker was in the far left corner of the room, the last in its row. On a metal tag your name was carved in bold clean black lettering. You put aside the lock and opened the door.

 

You should probably lock your locker, but then again you _were_ in a _police_ _station_. Your cardigan switched places with your second short sleeved uniform shirt. Sometimes you wished that you were still a detective, they don’t need to wear uniforms. For that you were jealous of them.

 

On the ground where shoes would normally be stored you had another duffle. This one held your old Sniper rifle; your unit had recently gotten new ones. Courtesy of a budget raise. In fact, yesterday were those new rifles field run. Just like at the range they worked perfectly. Hitting their targets with precision even better than the old one (and those weren’t exactly bad either). The new ones had greater range though. Almost like the one your father used to teach you and Jaydon, but a newer version.

If it weren’t for that and a lucky coincidence, you’d have never discovered your skill. And would have never gotten into law enforcement. Today, you were glad that fate took this course. You loved your job, maybe a bit too much to be honest. In Detroit, things never got boring; at least not for long.

 

Back to the duffle, you’d have to return it soon. If memory served correct you could keep it till November, but you’d have to check the date to make sure. They did _not_ joke around if it came to returning equipment. You did not want to go through that ordeal again.

 

“`Sup _hotshot_.” Gavin greeted, throwing open his locker door. Almost hitting you in the face with it.

 

You smiled at the nickname. He had come up with it when the two of you stared working here and it just kinda stuck. He stared calling you that after you had absolutely destroyed him at target practise (he bet that he could beat you, he lost. It wasn’t your idea this one was entirely on him.)

 

You closed your locker. “`Sup _dickface_ ” you said, mimicking his voice and giving him a playful punch to the shoulder as you passed him. He returned the punch, aiming at the three chevrons on your uniforms’ sleeve. Casual insulting between friends, as you do. You returned to the break room to throw your -now empty- coffee cup in the trash.

 

And Back to your desk you went. There were at least 15 reports that needed to be checked and approved before you could head out for day watch. Hopefully before lunch. Today you would assist in an arrest warrant for Meth distribution. Yeah, that’s still a thing but Red ice was more popular and frankly, the greater evil out of the two.

 

Hank’s desk was still empty. Maybe he hasn’t woken up yet. Should you give him a call?

You’d give him call later, after you checked the reports.

 

A quick side-glance revealed to you that your units had started moving. As shown by their GPS trackers moving about the streets.

 

***

**9:26**

Finally, you approved the last report of yesterday and it was saved to the police server. You looked at your cell phone. Should you try now?

 

You unlocked your phone and searched your contacts for Hanks’ number. There it was, saved as ‘Anderson Hank’ just under his ex-wife ‘Anderson Belinda’. You put the phone to your ear listening to it ring and watching Fowler in his glass office. If you’d recline enough, you would be able to look at his computer screen. Still ringing. But the text on it would be to small for you to read.

 

“What do you want- shit!” Hank clearly had just woken up, his voice betrayed him. That typical morning bleariness not yet gone.

 

“What’s wrong? Hungover?” You chuckled, reclining in your chair.

 

“You don’t have to be an ass ‘bout it.”

 

“If you give me the opportunity to be an ass, I will gladly take it.” You heard some thuds from his end of the line.

 

“Where are the damn painkillers.”

 

“Bathroom, light green commode thingy, top drawer.” Shuffling footsteps and a few curses later.

 

“Thanks.”

 

“So, when you coming in toda- “He hung up the phone.

Phf, rude.  Time for day watch it is then.

 

You packed your things and logged off the terminal, in accordance with the station’s rules. Walking to Chris Millers desk and putting your hand on it. He did not have many decorations on it, yet. These kinds of things accumulate over time, gifts from co-workers, pictures of partners and the annual official department photo were common things to start piling on your desk if you didn’t watch out.

 

“I’m heading out for day watch, wanna join me?”

 

He sprung up from his chair like a jack-in-the-box. An enthusiastic one isn’t he.

You handed him the keys. “You can go ahead and already boot up the MDT and converter. I’ll be with you in a minute.” He turned and headed for the exit in long strides. And you spun on your heel halting before Gavin’s desk.

 

“Hey Gavin, do you have an old report lying around somewhere in that mess you call your terminal?” He was prone to poor orthography and more than once his reports were sent straight back. Because even you did not always have the patience to correct everything. You know for a fact that he kept all his rejected reports. Whether it was to improve his spelling or just to remind him of his, as he called them, ‘failures’; you didn’t know. You hoped it was the first, sure he could be an ass but normally he was an okay guy.

 

“First of all, it’s not a mess it’s an _organized_ _chaos_.” He swivelled in his chair to face you. “And secondly what’d you need it for.”

 

“It’s to test out that little program of mine, the one I talked about.”

 

He scratched his three-day beard, well more like fluff. He tried hard to maintain his ‘gruff detective’ look and you’re not about to rain in on his parade… At least not when you needed something from him.

 

“I think I have what you need. But it’s gonna cost ya.”

 

“Whatever I’ll get you your- ah, what was it- Maple pecan muffin and Cordusio.” If you remembered correctly this was what he always ordered. You had guessed right, he nodded his head.

 

“You know me so well. “

 

“I sure hope I do.” You laughed “Afterall I was stuck with you for 5 years. Gotta go now.” With a casual to finger salute you were out the doors and on your way to the parking lot.

 

Five years of memories, not all good. It was not all sunshine and happiness between the two of you but none the less you both cared about the other. You don’t just work with someone 24/7 ‒even occasionally crashing at theirs ‒ and don’t develop a bond of sorts with them. You supposed going through what the both of you had was helping too.

The parking lot came into view, one single police car in it. A figure sitting in the passenger seat.

 

But if you could, you would certainly turn back time and check the 9th floor in his place. Then, while you were at it, you would punch your past-self for letting him go up there alone and not check up on him until it was almost too late. The events of that day had scarred him both mentally and physically.

“You ready to roll out?” You asked getting in and buckling your seatbelt. You moved the MDT and logged on, just as you would with your terminal at the station.

 

He nodded his head, beaming at you. “Sure am! What are we gonna do today?”

 

“Well” You paused to look at the time ‘9:49’. “the first thing on our list is an arrest warrant, then until lunch a few traffic stops on main street. You up for that.” It was a rhetorical question because whether he liked it or not, you were out of the parking lot now merging into traffic. Headed for your first destination 447 Front street.

 

“By the way, congratulations.” You said, calling on the radio that you were nearly there.

 

“… What for?” He spoke after a pause sounding confused.

 

“For becoming a father of course! What’s the little Miller’s name?”

 

“How do you know? I haven’t told anybody yet.”

 

A light-hearted laugh bubbled from your chest. “Oh Miller, I’m your Sergeant. I know _eeverything_ about you.” You drew out the e unnecessarily long.

 

“Not creepy at all.”

 

“That’s why I like to phrase it this way.”

 

***

**12:35**

You had just got back to your car after having eaten lunch. When suddenly you remembered your deal with Gavin.

 

“We need to make a detour to a Starbucks before going back.”

 

“And why’s that?”

 

“I got a deal with Gavin that involves me bringing him his usual.”

 

“Does that happen regularly.”

 

“Nope. So sorry to disappoint but you’re gonna have to get your own coffee.”

 

“Damnit, and here I was hoping…”

You were glad that he was settling in so quick, from what you had seen this morning he had potential. Who knows, maybe he would rise through the ranks faster than any of you expected.

“Thanks for accompanying me, hope I haven’t creeped you out too much, yet.”

 

***

**12:58**

Back at the DPD you went straight to Gavin’s desk, delivering his muffin and coffee. He took them from your grasp all to eagerly, nearly knocking _your_ coffee to the ground.

 

“Ah finally! My precious!” He cradled the items to his chest doing his very best Gollum voice, the scratchiness of his tone made you shudder. There was no way this could be healthy for his vocal chords.

 

“Did you find anything for me to use.” You nipped at your 4th  coffee, a good number considering you would usually be on your 6th cup. You were actively trying to cut back on your caffeine intake, with moderate results. Some days just needed more coffee than others it seemed.

 

“Oh, I think you’ll enjoy it alright. Some homicide case four moths ago. You know the one with the cat tha- why am I telling you this you where there yourself.” He whistled through his teeth, bobbing his head back and forth. “That one was fucked up. Sure, hope _my_ cats never do that to me…”

 

“Pff, they wouldn’t, you treat them like Kings. Okay maybe Chili would but the others love you far too much to attempt something like that.”

 

“Someday I shall win his heart too. Then I will send him after you. For this coffee you have brought me is as cold as my dead heart.”

 

You gave him a pat on the shoulder and made off towards your desk. “That manner of speech does not suit you Gav. As for the coffee, ‘s not my fault that Starbuck’s that far from the precinct. But if it soothes your aching heart, mine’s cold as well.”

Starting your terminal up you logged on once again. A report from Gavin popping into your inbox. You decided to write a short reply and selected Gavin in your contacts.

‘Thanks, want to come running with me this Wednesday?’ you hit send, only seconds later you heard Gavin’s reaction. A stifled ‘fuck no’. That was precisely what his written answer was as well.

 

‘Fuck no! Your insane I don’t want to go hopping on rooftops with u ever again!’ and right after that. ‘if u decide to go to the gym tho (like any sane person would) hit me up.’

‘and I know its you’re’ He closed the chat window before you had time to construct a reply.

 

Very well then, might as well try your program. You plugged the USB in dismissing the warning that came up. Opening your little file and feeding it Gavin’s report. A loading screen appeared.

 

2%...     10%...   17%...   26%...   40%...   55%...   56%...   68%...   80%...   92%...              100% Completed

 

The report came back on your screen, a list of spelling errors it detected and corrected next to it. So, spellcheck works, but you had to factcheck them yourself still. This was not really something you wanted to leave to a software that had no idea how to differentiate between the internet’s bullshit and real facts. Because even humans couldn’t if they didn’t know any better.

 

The rest of your day passed quickly. Nothing extraordinary, just you your paperwork and the occasional question over the radio.

 

***

**21:58**

 

Hank had not shown up all day. And so, you were forced to stay and do his workload too, even though your shift ended half an hour ago. But to your luck your program worked splendidly and took care of the more tedious part of it. Thanks to it the three reports that Hank had received instead of you, were worked through in that half hour you had to stay longer. HA, and Jaydon always said your programming degree wasn’t worth anything.

 

You just wanted to get up and leave as your phone rang. You looked at it, a picture of your brother and his wife decorating the screen and over that in white letters ‘Jayduh’

Quickly you grabbed your things, while you waited for the call to connect you bid night-shift goodbye and walked out the doors.

 

“Finally, I thought you wouldn’t pick up at all.” You were out in the parking lot by now, your car was the only one left from day-shift.

 

“How could I refuse a call from my _dear_ _bother_.” You put your hand on your car’s door and it opened, the lights inside turning on.

 

“Why do you sound so sarcastic, I’m the best goddamn brother there is. Hey, why aren’t you home yet?”

 

You stretched out on the backseats. “No, I’m on my way home though.” You stated matter of fact. “Why do you even know that I’m not home yet.”

 

“Talked with the receptionist- “

 

“You talked with Clo?”

“Yes, that is what I said, seems to like your interior decorating. I quote ‘It really reflects her personality’”

 

“Why are you even talking to- “

 

“Because I’m interested in your wellbeing, you know you could have called me when you needed help after your surgery…”

 

“I know, I know but rest assured everything healed up perfectly and I can vacuum on my own again.” After your surgery you were told that you were not allowed to vacuum for at least six weeks, lest you wanted to disturb your healing tissues. Since then you got yourself one of these Roomba thingies, and you had to say they were actually quite convenient. If they didn’t get stuck somewhere that is. (Also, putting googly-eyes on it was quite entertaining.)

 

“By the way, I’m home now. Anything else you want to tell me?” You stayed in the car for now, in case he wanted to say something.

 

“Nope! See ya soon. Night little sis.”

 

“Good night.” He hung up the phone. You left your car, locking it, and headed for the lobby. You were barely through the doors before the blonde android greeted you.

 

“Good evening. I saw that you will be absent for a month, would you like me to keep your flat clean for you?”

 

“Thanks for the offer but” You reached the elevator and scanned your card “after our last ordeal I got myself a Roomba. So you don’t need to do that.”

 

The elevator arrived, and you got on. “Good night Clo.”

 

“Good night. I hope you will enjoy your stay with your brother.” _God_ , how much had he told her-it. Damn those pronouns. The elevator came to a halt and you exited. Unlocking your front door, you were immediately assaulted by Katti.

 

You picked her up and went towards the couch, plopping down on it with a heavy sigh.

“Oh Katti, what am I gonna do?” You eyed your laptop, at some point you must have forgotten it here. Should you check out Cyberlife’s email? Hesitantly you pulled it on the sofa and entered your login. A few seconds later you were greeted with your background, an old family picture. You’d really need to visit your parents again sometime. You clicked on an icon called ‘THA’ and your police terminal came up. Again, you entered your police-login and went straight to your emails. There it was, a bit further down your inbox, pushed aside by your daily workload of emails. You clicked on it.

 

 

CyberLife Inc.

 Captain Fowler Jeffrey

Detroit City Police Central Station

1301 3rd Av., Detroit MI

 

Dear Captain Fowler,

We are very proud to present our newest Android Model. An RK800 Detective prototype, designation ‘Connor’

It is a state-of-the-art prototype designed to integrate into any team imaginable thanks to its advanced social module. The RK series has always harboured Cyberlife’s most innovative androids and this one is no different. The RK800 is equipped with a hyper-advanced physical simulation software that allows the reconstruction of a crime based on collected evidence; it is able to analyse biological evidence in real time; an improved version of the facial recognition module allows identification even if the target is disguised; it has been programmed to be the perfect negotiator and interrogator, these functions have been successfully tested in a real life situation with outstanding results; cutting edge processors allow the fastest computing of any cyberlife android as of yet. But perhaps the most important feature is that this model is capable of unarmed combat thanks to its access to an extensive combat database.

 It should be very clear that this model is designed to take an active role and work as part of a team, should it be destroyed in action CyberLife will provide a replacement in under 24 hours. We would like you to assign it to any cases pertaining to CyberLife androids, as there has been a concerning spike in them recently. We will handle all the legal paperwork should you decide to take up CyberLife’s offer. If successfully tested the model will become commercially available.

We await your answer within a week of today.

And look forward to a fruitful collaboration

 

Danielle Carnegie

CyberLife CSR

 

 

A rather short e-mail, usually companies liked to beat around the bush with their offers or requests. Cyberlife apparently not, interesting.

There was a picture attached to the email, you opened it. After a few seconds of loading the picture was displayed. It was the same android you saw yesterday, so it _was_ a new model. You took a closer look.

The android portrayed an athletically build, clean-cut 30 something brunet. With brown eyes that seemed to innocent and unassuming for his supposed function. Then again it could be a clever design choice to make look like it had no clue what it was doing to build a bond of sorts. Like a mentor student bond. Now that you looked at it, it kind of resembles someone you know or rather _knew_. Hank will not take well to this at all. The only saving grace you saw was that its attire resembled human formalwear more than an android uniform. Not counting the usual identifies it could have been a really nice suit, too bad.

You cuddled with Katti some more before going to bed. Your violin could wait another day.

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

**November 5 th, 2038 21:59**

**Detroit City Police Department**

Your head was laying on something very uncomfortable. Definitely something hard, it was making humming sounds like a computer. Now that your mind was starting to catch up it became obvious that you were uncomfortably arching your back and one of your arms was numb from the elbow down. You lifted your head and almost instantly you had that ‘ants crawling’ sensation in your arm. You were in the precinct, hunched over at your desk. A phone was ringing.

Your phone. Without looking at the caller ID you pick it up.

 

“Sorry to wake you up but were in a bit of a pinch here.” Ben? What could he need your help with? “Also, I think your _colleagues_ disconnected your desk-phone. Couldn’t reach you there.”

 

You yawned and cleared your throat, hoping to get your voice working. “What’d you need help with.”

 

“Okay were at 6413 Pines Street” You scribbled down the address “Landlord called because the tenant hadn’t payed rent in some time, wanted us to check. Turns out, that guy, Carlos Ortiz by the way, will never pay any bills again.” After a long silence from your end he added. “Cause he’s dead, for quite some time I’d say.”

 

“But what do you need my help with? That seems like something you could handle on your own.”

 

“Thing is… that guy had an android, since you and Hank-“ You cut him off, rubbing at your eyes. Hank was the only one who didn’t know that he was going to work android cases instead of homicides. Hopefully Fowler would take that responsibility and break the news to Hank.

 

“If you’re going to ask me where Hank is, I have no fucking idea.”

 

“Are you a mind reader… he’s ignoring all my calls.” Classic Hank, he’s probably at some bar. You’d have to pick him up on your way. You had secretly hoped that today would be a slow one, no such luck. “If he’d had picked up my calls, I wouldn’t have woken you up- “

 

“Alright, give me 5 minutes to wake up and then I’m on my way. See you Ben.” You hung up the phone and stretched your legs before standing up. The breakroom was your destination or rather the coffee machine _in_ the breakroom, you needed something to wake you up. You had barely slept the last few days and it was really starting to get to you.

 

After you had your coffee you made your way to Gavin’s desk. “Which one of you had the _brilliant_ idea of not waking me up and disconnecting my damn phone.”

 

He defensively crossed his arms. “I have seen you when you’ve just woken up and I’m not about to pull another ‘Leland’ here. Wouldn’t want to endanger my fellow officers, right?”

 

“What he means by that” Wilson called through the office “You’re not exactly getting a lot of sleep these days. So, we figured we’d let you snooze a bit.”

 

“That’s really nice and all but,” You finished your coffee in one gulp “I’m on call. You can’t just disconnect my phone. Anyway, I gotta go. Please rewire my phone.” Tossing your cup into a nearby trashcan, you turned on your heel and made for the entrance.

 

“Sure thing sleeping beauty!” You ignored him in favour of getting to the doors faster. Where you promptly bumped into someone, or should you say some _thing_.

 

 

“Sorry.” It was a subconscious reaction. Something you always said when bumping into someone (even furniture). But unlike furniture or even a person, this one stayed still like a brick wall.

 

“Are you Sergeant- “Cutting right to the chase, huh. Then you would do the same.

 

“That’s me. Can I help you?” Why must this android be so tall. It did not look to be this tall in the photos. Also, that jacked is really soft. God you were tired.

 

“Yes, I believe so. My name is Connor. I’m the android sent by CyberLife.” Oh right, that was today. You completely forgot about that. “Is Lieutenant Anderson here?”

 

“No, he’s not here, left the station about…” a quick look at your phone display “two hours ago.” You knew October just passed and all, but Hank was acting like a real dick. Coming in only after noon and leaving early, all his work falling to you.

 

“Do you know where I could find him?”  You would gladly let the android drag Hank to the crime scene. One less task on your to-do list.

 

“Don’t know. Probably getting drunk somewhere nearby. Now if you’ll excuse me” You walked around the android to get out.

Rain. Classic Detroit. You ran to your police car opening the trunk to see if your evidence-kit was inside or if you forgot it in your private vehicle. This week such occurrences had not been uncommon. Misplacing important items, forgetting things and falling asleep in the most uncomfortable places possible. _This_ is what your week looked like, not the best of records.

Wait… Tomorrow is Saturday, the first Saturday this month. Which means gym time with your squad, last time William fixed the activities. This time it would be… Ryan, great you could not wait for all the bruises to form. He really likes to focus on hand-to-hand combat, even though you were primarily engaged in ranged combat situations. He especially enjoyed throws, much to the dismay of your body. On the plus side you now had techniques of both Krav Maga and Capoeira to give your combat a bit of pizazz. Adding that and somersaults from your own sport made for an interesting combination.

You buckled your seatbelt and turned the keys and the car came to life. Okay, where to? A scrunched up post-it gave you the answer: 6413 Pines Street.

 

***

**22: 30**

Ben was waiting outside as you arrived. He held out a police tablet to you, a few notes already on it. You placed it on your evidence kit. “Ben let’s go inside I’m freezing.” In weather like this you were especially jealous of detectives. If you could wear your street clothes you would no doubt be bundled up in one of those nice self-warming garments to keep you toasty warm. That was an improvement in clothing that could stay for however long it wanted.

 

“Not too sure you’ll like it in there.” You followed him in regardless and boy, was he right. Immediately you wrinkled your nose at the foul stench of decaying flesh. He wasn’t joking when he said that Carlos had been dead for quite some time. Your personal estimate was maybe about a month, judging by the maggots and flies picking at his body.

 

You put down your kit and rummaged through it, looking for your camera. “I see you’re going to take some nice scenic pictures. Make sure you get my good side.”

 

“You bet I will.” You gave him a toothy grin and pointed the camera as he stuck a pose.

 

“By the way, where’d you leave Hank.”

 

This time it was a malicious glint in your eyes that betrayed you, payback time Hank. “Let’s just say he’s going to be real fucking happy when he gets here.” Without another word you got to work. Taking various pictures of evidence, rounding the outside of the house at least twice before returning to the body. Then you had enough of the stench and simply went to stand on the porch, camera in one hand tablet in the other.

 

By now you had a little audience watching you, the only thing keeping them from flooding the crime scene was the police android you had requested together witch CSI. No way in hell would you let one of your officers stand in the rain all night and the holographic ‘police do not cross’ just didn’t do it for most people. Particularly in this kind of neighbourhood.

 

You heard Hank before you saw him and immediately went to look for Ben, passing Chris on your way in. Assuming he went out for a breather like you had, you gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder.

 

“Ben!” You couldn’t see him in the living- or bedroom. You tried the kitchen next. “Hank’s just arrived, I’ll let you welcome him to the party.”

Ben shuffled past you. “Oh, I’m sure he’s overjoyed to be here.”

“Aren’t we all.” You said, sighing as you thought that you could be in your bed right now.

 

You hung the camera from your neck and took the tablet into two hands. Strolling back into the living room while flipping through the catalogued evidence and information available to it. The picture of the corpse was still empty, showing the default: No Information Available Yet. How long could the coroner possibly take to get here, maybe if that damn corpse disappeared the odour would too. Even though you had opened all the windows the moment you arrived, the house still smelled like a morgue whose power went out. You shook at the thought, it’s far from the first corpse you had seen or rather smelled that was in this state of decay, this shouldn’t make you squeamish.

 

“Jesus that smell!” Entrance Hank, so the android _had_ found him.

 

“Was even worse before we opened the windows…”

 

“That’s an understatement, and you know it.” You looked up from your tabled to give Hank a wave as greeting. Without further ado Ben started briefing Hank on what you knew.

“The victim’s name’s Carlos Ortiz. He has a record for theft and aggravated assault…” Figures that he wouldn’t be clean. “According to neighbours, he was kind of a loner… Stayed inside most of the time, they hardly ever saw him.” With that red ice you found it seemed Carlos knew how to party on his own.

 

“Uh, state he’s in…” Hank crouched over the corpse, examining it. “Wasn’t worth calling everybody out in the middle of the night...” That’s one point you could agree on. “Could’ve waited ‘til morning.”

 

“I’d say he’s been there for a good three weeks. We’ll know more when the coroner gets here.” Ben looked over to you and you raised your shoulders: _Don’t look at_ me _, I don’t know what the fuck is taking him this long_. He turned away and continued. “There’s a kitchen knife over here... Probably the murder weapon.”

 

Hank was handed a UV-light. “Any signs of a break-in?”

 

“Nope” Ben shifted on his feet, you would offer him one of your lavender scented masks, but you gave your last one to Chris. Can’t have him faint on a crime scene just after getting promoted, could you? You could but decided to save him the humiliation. “The landlord said the front door was locked from the inside, all windows were boarded up.” Yup wrenching those boards down was about as exciting as you’d expect, but you needed to air the place out. Or all your guys would be fainting as soon as they set foot inside. “The killer must’ve gone out the back way.”

 

“What do we know about his android?”

 

“Not much.” You joined the conversation. “The neighbours confirmed he had one, but it wasn’t here when we arrived.”

 

Ben turned towards the door. “I gotta get some air. Make yourself at home. I’ll be outside if you need me, or just ask her” he waved the UV-light in your direction.

You watched the android go off to look at the evidence markers you put down earlier and turned to Hank. “What’d you think of your escort, hm?”

 

He gave you a tired look. “You have it out for me, don’t you?” You smirked, there he was right you kind of did it on purpose. He turned to the writing on the wall. “Each letter is perfect... It’s way too neat no Human writes like this.”  Hank walked off while you stayed and looked at the writing some more. The font seemed familiar enough, but you couldn’t place it.

“Err, Jesus! What the hell are you doing?” You spun around to see Hank looking disgusted and the android holding to fingers near its mouth.

 

“I’m analysing the blood” It explained. “I can check samples in real time.” Dang, a walking forensics lab. “I’m sorry, I should have warned you.”

 

“Okay, just… don’t… put anymore evidence in your mouth, you got it?” Hank did not seem impressed.

“Got it.” It repeated and looked at its blood coated fingers intently. Weird.

“Fucking hell, I can’t believe this shit.”

You crept up beside him. “A walking forensics lab, pretty cool if you ask me.”

Hank pointedly ignored your remark. “Was this written in the victim’s blood?”

You decided to play nice and not pester him more. “I would say so, we’re taking samples for analysis.” The android crouched down next to the body and for a second you feared it would take something in its mouth again. But luckily it did not. It did however speak after it stood up again.

 

“He was stabbed” No shit android-sherlock. “28 times.” You counted 30 must’ve counted some twice.

“Yeah, seems the killer really had it in for him.” Hank gave you a side glance and wandered over to the table full of Red ice while the android wandered off again. God you had to get out a bit or you’d go insane soon. You went to tell Hank. “Red ice, seems our friend Carlos liked to party…”

“He sure did… I’ll go outside, need to breathe a bit.”

 “I didn’t take you for someone with a queasy stomach.” It was an attempt at a joke, but you were too tired to appreciate the effort.

“I’ve been in here for more than two hours. It’s a miracle I haven’t passed out yet. Chris, you’re in charge.” You walked out the front door onto the porch. “Fresh air at last.” Leaning on a wall you dragged a hand through your hair, dishevelling the loose strands even more. You were exhausted and had one hell of a headache, for all you cared you could fall unconscious any second now. At least then you’d get some sleep for once.

God you hoped you wouldn’t fall asleep driving back to the station. You’d be in a lot of trouble if you crashed the car, Fowler would have your head.

You decided to go through the pictures on your camera, just to see if you could come up with some theory. The body stabbed (apparently) 28 times. The ‘I AM ALIVE’ on the wall, Ortiz sure as hell wasn’t. A bloodied kitchen knife, the murder weapon. But was it the only one, after all there was a bat on the kitchen floor and upturned chairs, a sign of a struggle. Carlos and his murderer clearly fought. And the Knife also came from the kitchen, it started there. The murderer forced Ortiz to the living room where they stabbed and killed him. But where was the android? They’re supposed to prioritise human lives over everything else. Did he possibly sell it to get money for drugs? Or was he attacked by it, but then where would it have gone, if everything was locked from the inside.

 

Enough of this, back into the battle. Back to that putrid smell. Ok, now where did Hank go. If you weren’t so tired you would have noticed him standing in the entrance to the kitchen with Chris.

“’M back guys, what’d I miss.”

Hank turned his head to the side. “Android’s looking for blue blood- Hey! Hey!Hey! What are you doin’ with that chair?” Your focus changed from Hank to the android, ‘Connor’ if memory served you right, was holding a chair. A chair that technically counted as evidence.

 

“I’m going to check something.” That’s it? No more explanation?

“Huh” Hank looked down to you. “Gonna _check_ something.”

“Why do you sound so sarcastic.” You followed the android with your gaze as it climbed up into an attic you didn’t even notice was there. “Don’t you enjoy your new android sidekick.”

This earned you another tired look, and a scrunched-up face from the lieutenant

 

“I hope this thing” he gestured up to the attic with his thumb. “won’t stick around.” Then you had bad news for him. “It’s been up there for a long time” Way to escape a conversation. Bummer, you were just about to break the news to him. Oh well, he’ll find out tomorrow. “Connor, what the fuck is going on up there?”

No answer. You looked at Hank, then the chair. If it didn’t answer in the next 30seconds you’d go up to check.

“It’s here lieutenant!” So it’s not dead after all.

 

“Holy shit…” Holy shit indeed. Usually a murderer doesn’t stay anywhere near their kill, so you hadn’t expected to find the android. ” Chris Ben get your asses in here now.” Chris and Ben appeared in the corridor. “Come on!” They both went up into the attic and when you moved to join them, a hand landed heavy on your shoulder. “Not you, the state you’re in you’ll only be endangering them.”

 

“What are you talking about, I’m perfectly fine” You scoffed and crossed your arms in front of you.

 

“You say that, yet I saw you almost nodding of in the corner there.” He pointed to a corner with his chin, a corner you indeed almost fell asleep in. “I might be old but if you think you can fool me, you’ll need to be a better actress.” Deeply hurt in your pride as an actress you went out to sulk.

 

One thing he was right about, he might not be in the prime of his years anymore, but he was still a brilliant detective. Almost nothing gets past him, the subtlest change in a suspect’s face was enough for him to get a read on them. Sometimes you found it scary, he seemed to know their emotions better than they themselves. More than once he had used this against them and successfully extracted a confession where you and others failed.

 

“- caught it.” You were ripped from your thoughts and noticed that you had closed your eyes again. “Pack-up, we’re done here. You” Hank pointed an accusatory finger at you, “you’re going home. Think you can manage without crashing the car?”

 

You huffed. “‘course I can. Who do you think I am?”

 

He shot you a bad look as the others sat down the handcuffed android in a police car. You focused on the android, completely blocking out Hanks lecture. It didn’t seem to put up a fight. Or even acknowledge what was going on around it. If you didn’t know better, you would have said that it looks traumatized. “- do not underestimate driving while sleep deprived. Are you even listening!” Oops you’ve been found out.

 

“I am! I heed your advice and will drive carefully back to the- “

“Home!”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll drive home.” Hank shooed you to your car, you complied and sat down in the driver’s seat. That seemed to satisfy him, and he lumbered back to his own car where ‘Connor’ was waiting. You took your phone from the cupholder and searched your contacts for Gavin. Scrolling past it at least three times before you saw ‘Gavinator’ as his contact name. Hadn’t you changed that a while ago? He must’ve gotten into your phone again. You’d chew him out another time for now you’d patiently wait for him to pick up his damn phone.

 

“What’s up sleepyhead.”

You were not in the mood for chatting, so you cut to the chase. “They’re bringing in a suspect. I need you to prepare the interrogation-room. And send me a rough summary afterwards.” You added.

 

“What’s the magic word?”

“Please”

“I’m not convinced.”

“Please Gavinator the great.” Luckily you knew the way to Gavin’s heart, copious ego stroking. Worked every time, or coffee that had a success rate of about 95%.

“Will do.”

“Thanks.” You hung up the phone and turned the keys in the ignition. Looking up through the windshield you noted that Hank’s car was still there. Most likely waiting for you to drive off, to make sure you didn’t go back to the station. Fine by you, your bed sounded a lot more comfortable that the desk. Turning around the car you looked in the rearview-mirror to see Hanks taillights turning on.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay guys the first chapter I ever posted. That means this is my first fanfic and I have no idea how things work. I guess I'll just kinda worm my way through this. Let's see how good,or bad, this will turn out to be. 
> 
> Also, I have no idea how america works


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